


A Rose for Tara

by segerge



Series: TASK FORCE [66]
Category: HERO Champions
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 04:21:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7603207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/segerge/pseuds/segerge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(October 2039) Bob pays his last respects to Tara 'Lady Blue' Lemick.  So does the supervillain Dominus, her son by Menton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Rose for Tara

**Author's Note:**

> #### DRAMATIS PERSONAE
> 
> **heroes**
> 
>   * Dr. Bob Hawkins (AKA Starforce I), retired superhero (power-armor wearer/gadgeteer)
>   * Jocelyn Sher (AKA Starforce II), Daughter of Bob Hawkins, leader of the NYC-area supergroup 'The Sentinels', power-armor wearer/gadgeteer
> 

> 
> **villains**
> 
>   * Nestor Medina (AKA Dominus), psionic power-armor wearer
> 

> 
> **AUTHOR'S NOTE 1** : Telepathy is denoted by (( )), internal monologue by [[ ]]
> 
> **AUTHOR'S NOTE 2** : Bob is 77 chronologically but 53 physically, Jocelyn is 48.
> 
> **AUTHOR'S NOTE 3** : Suggested soundtrack is the Peter Hollens cover of ["Loch Lomond"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0KQLJwMDzc).
> 
> * * *

(Brooklyn. Mid-afternoon. A car on autopilot is maneuvering toward the Holy Cross Cemetery, bearing Bob 'Starforce' Hawkins and Jocelyn 'Starforce II' Sher)

**Jocelyn** : "Okay, I've talked your ear off about my family. What's happening with you?"

**Starforce** : "When I'm not attempting to cool Venus off to terraform it?"

**Jocelyn** : "You HAVE been off-planet a lot recently trying to do that..."

**Starforce** : "Well, I did get to see my new grandson before I came to New York."

**Jocelyn** : "You actually got to see him the day he was born, right?"

**Starforce** : "Timing is everything. Nicole went into labor right when I landed." (beat) "You forget just how TINY they are when they're born."

**Jocelyn** : "What did they name him?"

**Starforce** : "Theodore. After his other grandfather."

**Jocelyn** : "Olivia and now Theodore. How come Nicole got to use both *her* parents' names for their children?"

**Starforce** : "James can be scatter-brained like that. Comes with the genetic code, I'm afraid."

(they laugh)

**Jocelyn** : "So, do you think Theodore's going to take up the family business?"

**Starforce** : "He's less than a week old! Don't you think you're pushing him a bit?"

**Jocelyn** (smiles): "I'm just looking for a worthy successor to the name 'Starforce.' Is that wrong?"

**Starforce** : "Give him 20 years. He might want to do something else with his life."

**Jocelyn** : "An Empyrean, a Director-General of UNTIL, a President of the United States, and a Nobel Laureate in Physics went into that child -- and all of them superheroes! What else is he SUPPOSED to do?"

**Starforce** : "I've never been a big fan of forced destiny. Neither should you." (beat) "Besides, how do you know Olivia or one of Nathan and Jackie's children or one of Laura's children won't want the name?"

**Jocelyn** (beat, sighs): "So much for retiring from superheroics..."

**Starforce** : "You've been making noises about that for years. What's changed?"

**Jocelyn** : "I'm older, Dad. I'm slowing down, and I don't have Varanyi medical tech in my bloodstream slowing my aging down like you and Julie or your children." (beat) "And frankly, leading the Sentinels while raising children burns you out."

**Starforce** (suddenly serious): "You're not bitter that I'm aging slower than you?"

**Jocelyn** : "It's one thing to know that it's going to happen. It's something completely different to actually SEE yourself overtake your own father's aging."

(long pause, held gaze. Jocelyn can see the sorrow in Bob's eyes from knowing that he is probably going to outlive his oldest child)

**Jocelyn** (hugs Bob): "Ask me again in 20 years, okay?"

**Starforce** (sad smile): "Okay."

**Jocelyn** : "Just to try and gague how successful my superhero retirement is going to be, how many times did you attempt it?"

**Starforce** : "Three that I'll admit to in public."

(they laugh. There is a lull in the conversation as the car turns into the cemetery)

**Starforce** : "Why didn't you tell me earlier so I could attend her funeral? Or see her one last time before she died?"

**Jocelyn** : "It would have broken your heart to see what the ravages of time had done to her." (beat) "She wanted you to remember her as she had been, not as she was at the end of her life."

**Starforce** : "How did you end up knowing her?"

**Jocelyn** : "She has been of some assistance to the Sentinels. Non-combatant consultant only, though."

(the car stops by a fresh gravesite. A superhuman wearing a glowing suit of powered armor is already standing by it)

**Jocelyn** : "Aw, CRAP!"

**Starforce** : "What's wrong?"

**Jocelyn** : "That's Dominus! Her son!"

* * *

(Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn. One second later)

**Starforce** : "Damn, I was hoping he wouldn't be here." (digs in his coat pocket, produces an anti-psionic grenade, and hands it to Jocelyn) "Just in case I'm not in a position to use mine."

**Jocelyn** : "Dad, don't..."

**Starforce** : "Relax, kiddo. You don't survive in the biz for half a century without picking up a few tricks."

(the car doors open. Bob grabs his walking cane and the solitary rose he brought with him, winks at Jocelyn, and gets out)

(Bob walks up alongside Nestor 'Dominus' Medina and stares at the grave. The headstone reads TARA LEMICK December 28th, 1961 - October 16th, 2039)

**Dominus** (hissing): "Son of Zerstoiten!"

(tense pause)

**Starforce** : "Now THERE'S a phrase I haven't heard in decades." (beat) "Could've stood to *not* hear it again for the rest of my life, either..."

**Dominus** : "You have a lot of gall for profaning my mother's gravesite with your presence."

**Starforce** : "I thought you admired gall in a person."

**Dominus** : "For you, I am willing to make an exception."

**Starforce** : "Are you through posturing? Because for future reference, I knew your mother for FAR longer than you did."

(beat, while Jocelyn joins them. The hologram simulating street clothes is gone; she has had her battlesuit on all along)

(Dominus abruptly stares at his suit, which has stopped glowing during the time he was attempting to intimidate Bob)

**Dominus** (to Bob): "What have you done to my suit?"

**Starforce** : "Ancient Chinese secret. If I tell you, it won't be a secret anymore."

**Dominus** : "Less sarcasm. More exposition."

**Starforce** : "When your father mind-raped your mother into building his suit back in 2012, she designed an Achilles Heel into it." (beat) "One *you* duplicated very faithfully in YOUR suit."

**Dominus** (to Jocelyn): "You never exploited that when you fought me..."

**Jocelyn** : "I wasn't aware it existed until just now."

**Starforce** (to Jocelyn): "Because neither me nor Tara shared that knowledge with you."

(Dominus examines Bob carefully)

**Dominus** : "The nullifier is built into your totally-unnecessary walking stick, correct?"

**Starforce** : "There IS hope for your generation after all..."

(Bob steps past Nestor and kneels before Tara's grave. He places the rose on it and remains kneeling)

(long pause)

**Dominus** : "You are crying, Son of Zerstoiten. Why?"

**Starforce** (softly, tears in his eyes): "Because had things worked out differently, we would have been far more to each other than we were." (beat) "Only Julie understood me better."

**Dominus** (wistfully): "Then you have the advantage of me."

**Starforce** : "How so?"

**Dominus** : "I never knew her personally like you did. My father took me to Spain to be raised among the rest of the Medina clan instead."

(long pause. Bob looks at Dominus. For not being psionic, Jocelyn knows what Bob is about to say)

**Jocelyn** : "Dad, DON'T..."

**Starforce** (interrupting while standing): "This is something I owe to the son she never knew. If she were here now, I think she'd want me to do this."

**Dominus** (incredulous): "You would consent to a mind-link with ME?"

**Starforce** : "Only over the matter of your mother, so you can know her as I did. Deal?"

**Dominus** (shakes his offered hand): "Deal." (beat) "It will take a while to overcome your natural mental defenses."

**Starforce** : "Then be gentle with me."

(awkward pause)

**Dominus** (sarcastically): "Funny, son of Zerstoiten."

* * *

(Inside Bob's mind. One minute later)

(It is May 1982. A young Bob and Tara laugh as they exchange Nerf dart fire in their lab at ProStar)

**Dominus** : "This was your idea of relaxation?"

**Starforce** : "The Internet was still run by the US military, and you wouldn't believe how crude video games were back then." (beat) "We enjoyed the trash-talking more than we did the score-keeping."

**Dominus** : "Why Nerf guns?"

**Starforce** : "My first day at work, she expressed her displeasure at both my clothing sense and the fact that I wasn't an MIT grad like she was. After work, I bought a Nerf gun, and when she came into work the next day, I used it to express my displeasure with her." (beat, smiles) "It escalated from there."

****(early June 1982. Tara produces two tickets to the premiere of _Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan_ and asks Bob if he would like to see it with her)

**Dominus** : "She really caught you by surprise with that?"

**Starforce** : "Yes. I had never thought of her as more than just a co-worker until that day."

(mid June 1982. Bob and Tara are putting the Mark I prototype suit together on a mannequin, and their hands touch going for the same component. Long pause, held gaze while they both blush and smile awkwardly)

**Dominus** : "Neither did she, apparently."

**Starforce** : "I was expecting her either to slap me or go for the Nerf guns for that. It wasn't intentional on either of our parts."

(late June 1982. Tara yells at Bob for guttering his fifth straight frame of bowling, and they laugh)

**Starforce** : "I wasn't very coordinated back then."

**Dominus** : "I gathered that."

(early July 1982. Tara and Bob scream and laugh as the roller coaster starts its initial drop at Six Flags Over Texas)

**Dominus** : "You two would deliberately scare yourselves?"

**Starforce** : "It was called an amusement park. There is a lot of what we took for granted back then which is lost to your generation."

(late July 1982. Tara twirls in mid-air smiling while modeling and testing the Mark I prototype in the lab until the forcefield malfunctions. Bob catches her before she can fall to the floor. Long pause, held gaze)

**Dominus** : "Rather chivalrous of you."

**Starforce** : "What was I SUPPOSED to do? Let her land on her butt?"

(Early August 1982. Tara sways to Mr. Bassman's saxophone solo and tries to get Bob to dance with her)

**Starforce** : "She was always trying to get me to be more outgoing and social."

**Dominus** : "Why wouldn't you?"

**Starforce** : "I didn't know how to act around her. Oh, I knew how to flirt with women between technical meet-and-greets and the Purdue Glee Club, but until Tara none of them were *ever* interested in me as a person."

**Dominus** : "Is that regret I sense?"

**Starforce** (beat): "Yes."

****(Late August 1982. A rapid montage of images: Julie blunders into the middle of a Nerf battle, Bob and Tara argue at a picnic bench over Chinese food, then Bob as Starforce and Tara as Lady Blue mow down VIPER agents trying to destroy ProStar as a tornado approaches, then Lady Blue flies off without Starforce after the storm was dissipated) /* 'You All Meet in a Lab' */

**Starforce** : "VIPER was attempting to take ProStar over. We all kept them from doing it."

**Dominus** : "This is where you lost my mother."

**Starforce** : "Tara always accused Julie of stealing me from her, never realizing the disconnect was socio-political. I just wanted to invent crazy awesome things, and she ultimately wanted social justice for the downtrodden."

****(It is 1985. Another rapid montage of images: Bob shorts Lady Blue's forcefield out during her attempted robbery of a party at Stately Dormyer Manor, Starforce confronts Tara at their old lab then fight an attack by VIPER off, Lady Blue fights alongside TASK FORCE for several increasingly-violent battles against the DFW VIPER Nest, then finally Lady Blue flies away from Granite Park carrying an overloading VIPER energy cannon which explodes seemingly before she can safely drop it north of Granite Park) /* 'Escalation' */

**Dominus** : "But yet you would fight together. This is not the only time that would happen."

**Starforce** : "We both hated VIPER far more than the differences between each other."

****(Halloween 1989. Another rapid montage of images centered around the Dallas Museum of Natural History: Starforce talks Lady Blue out of robbing the attendees at the masquerade ball, then they laugh as they slow-dance, then they are side-by-side again attacking Dark Seraph, then a long and sad held gaze while he holds a grieving Ladyhawk) /* 'Crowns of Krim' */

**Dominus** : "Those differences do not seem to be as much as you make them sound."

**Starforce** : "We were both lonely that night."

**Dominus** : "By this time, she was as much a celebrity as she was a supervillainess! How could she be that lonely?"

**Starforce** : "The next time you have a chance to mind-read a celebrity, you might find it educational."

(December 1993. Bob looks out the window of the Guest Apartment at 3 AM while feeding baby Nathan and makes eye contact with Lady Blue levitating over the driveway. She flies into the sky, the flare of her forcefield illuminating the skeleton of the new Dormyer Manor being built on the ruins of the old)

**Dominus** : "Even when you were married and had started your family, the attraction was still there between you two."

**Starforce** : "I never did find out why she was there that night. We didn't speak that much after Julie and I got married."

(it is 1998. Lady Blue and Bob argue over the merits of letting Istvatha V'Han win during her first invasion attempt) /* 'The First Dimensional War (chapter III)' */

**Dominus** : "You were so close to being swayed by her arguments that morning."

**Starforce** : "The 90's were not a good decade for me. She exploited that."

(it is 2001. Tara watches the relativistic starship she was forced to build for Kat el-Hassan obliterate half of Larisagrad as it takes off. Bob and Julie stand alongside her in full kit, having just got done rescuing Tara from ARGENT) /* 'Like A Jewel in the Heavens' */

**Dominus** : "The relationship between her and your wife was... interesting. Almost as interesting as her relationship with you."

**Starforce** : "You could say that." (beat) "They may have hated each other's guts, but they also respected each other's abilities as well. In a weird way, she may have been attracted to Julie as much as she was attracted to me."

**Dominus** (beat): "A bisexual love triangle?"

**Starforce** : "It never got that far."

(it is 2007. Suited up, Tara waits for Bob and Julie to get out of the SUV, then tearfully tells them both of the alternate timeline Istvatha V'Han had created by preventing his rescue of Julie at Dayton back in 1990) /* "V'Han Returns (Chapter II)" */

**Dominus** : "I can't understand why she didn't run off with you in the alternate timeline she described instead of insuring you would save your future wife."

**Starforce** : "She wasn't supposed to exist in that timeline, and that version of me wasn't the one she was in love with."

****(It is 2013. A rapid montage: Bob gently coaxes Tara out from under the lab bench she has wedged herself under at Alpenfestung, She accompanies Bob and Menton's hot-sleep pod up to a Varanyi Star Galleon in orbit. Tara looks at the depowered Menton gibbering in his cell, she tries to surrender to Bob, they kiss very passionately, and she flies off for Main Teleport of the Star Galleon) /* 'Force of Will' */

(Bob senses the anger rising at Dominus' end of the mind link like an approaching storm)

**Dominus** : "You MADE her FORGET me?!?"

**Starforce** : "I had the Varanyi remove the memories of what your father had done to her. The memories of your birth were an unavoidable casualty of the psionic surgery."

**Dominus** : "WHAT GAVE YOU THAT RIGHT?"

**Starforce** (coldly): "When I was growing up, I was taught that a man simply does NOT do to a woman what Menton did to your mother. For Tara's rape alone, I *should* have taken his life."

**Dominus** (grabbing both sides of Bob's head): "Then you won't mind if I take yours, then."

(Bob attempts to break the mind link with Dominus. The gravesite at Holy Cross Cemetery attempts to superimpose itself over the mental landscape of the link. He reaches for the pocket of his coat, but cannot get to it and the anti-psionic grenade contained within before the growing force of Dominus' mental assault paralyzes him)

**Starforce** (vocally): "J... Jo... ce... lyn...?"

(The Holy Cross Cemetery abruptly snaps into full focus as Bob falls to his knees. He clutches his chest and gasps, pulse pounding in his ears, as Dominus collapses face-first to the ground beside him)

**Starforce** (to Jocelyn): "You're supposed to activate the grenade, not bludgeon him with it!"

**Jocelyn** (grabbing Bob's arm): "I was in a hurry." (she helps him to his feet) "Are you OK?"

**Starforce** (catching breath): "I am now."

(Jocelyn kneels over Dominus and rapidly pulls some components out of his suit)

**Jocelyn** (standing again): "I have to say, this is the easiest time I've ever had dealing with him."

**Starforce** : "Pulled his ZPE cells, didn't you?" /* ZPE = Zero-point energy. Google it */

**Jocelyn** (smiling): "Yep." (beat) "Let's go, before he comes to."

**Starforce** : "Shouldn't we take his wallet, too, while we can?"

**Jocelyn** : "DAD!"

(they head back to the car. Bob stops before getting in and looks back at Tara's grave)

**Starforce** (internal monologue): [[farewell, Tara. Wherever you are now, you know how I always felt about you]]

(tears in his eyes, he gets into the car)

* * *

(fin)


End file.
